


Just a Little of Your Love.

by thesameoldfairytale



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Dance Student!Yuri, M/M, Music Student!Otabek, Yuri & Victor are cousins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-12 14:30:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15997154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesameoldfairytale/pseuds/thesameoldfairytale
Summary: Yuri leaves Moscow and his grandpa behind and decides to go to university in Saint Petersburg to study dance. One of only ten students in Miss Baranovskaya's class, he expects hard work and endless hours of training. What he doesn't expect is to reunite with his idiot cousin of all people, to find the first best friend of his life and perhaps even to fall in love somewhere along the way.





	1. The Very First Day.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri's first day at university doesn't start the way he had hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little housekeeping...
> 
> * The ages of the characters are not canon compliant. Everyone is at least 18 years old. Otabek, JJ and Leo are the same age, as are Victor and Chris for example. Otabek is only a year older than Yuri instead of two and a half.  
> * I went to high school for a year in the US and got my undergrad and postgrad degrees in the UK, so the depiction of college life here is a bit of a mix of everything I know about uni in the US and the UK. Please don't take anything literally. This is fiction after all.  
> * The rating will definitely change to explicit in the future, just to warn you.  
> * Tags will be added as I go along.

Well, school sucked. Not that Yuri didn’t know that already but voluntarily going back to any kind of academic institution surely hadn’t been on his agenda after he had finished high school. Yet here he was on the first day of his undergraduate course.

At least he was old enough to drive. He had finally gotten his license over the summer holidays since he had found out that he would be leaving Moscow to move to Saint Petersburg. However, Yuri couldn’t afford to buy his own car so for the time being he drove his grandfather’s bright red Honda Civic. The car was twenty years old and certainly not in the best condition. It was older than Yuri himself, so that didn’t really come as a surprise either. He still felt bad about leaving his grandfather without his own mode of transportation but Nikolai had insisted that Yuri needed the car more than he did, even though the Saint Petersburg public transportation system was just as good as Moscow’s.

He had no time to ponder over it any longer though as he made his early morning stop at his local starbucks. Yuri had been driving the way from his tiny midtown apartment to the college almost every day since he had stepped foot into Saint Petersburg. He knew how long it would take him by heart, his coffee stop already calculated in as well.

Even despite knowing exactly how long it would take him to reach the college, Yuri had left slightly earlier than had been necessary for one sole reason. He simply didn’t want to rush through the drive-thru of the coffee shop, opting instead to actually park the car and walk inside. Yuri turned the motor off, pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head to hide his golden locks underneath it before he grabbed his wallet from the passenger seat and got out of the car. He knew what kind of impression his physical appearance gave people which was exactly why he was determined to not give them the chance to misjudge him.

It was early in the morning so it was no surprise to find all sorts of people rushing in and out of the coffee shop, balancing their to-go cups with keys and phones and briefcases. Yuri pushed past a tall woman in a dark grey suit who was obviously in a hurry as she scowled at him for forcing his way into the shop before she could leave it. Instead of indulging her negativity, Yuri simply ignored her and went to stand in the rather long line to order his coffee.

He was busy browsing social media on his phone to make the time pass faster but the moment impossibly hot coffee hit his jeans clad leg, Yuri jumped. Losing the grip on his phone, he was about to lunge after it but someone else had already bent down to save his phone from falling to the floor only for the screen to crack into a thousand tiny pieces. A multitude of colourful curses made their way out of his mouth as the kid who had bumped into him began fussing over his ruined jeans, asking Yuri frantically if he was hurt and apologising over and over again.

Yuri could not have cared any less about what the kid had to say. He was still swearing as he snatched his phone out of the other stranger’s hand without even looking at him. All he did as a sign of gratitude was a mumbled thanks while he absent-mindedly dabbed at his soaked jeans, the kid who was responsible for the whole mess fawning over him with a stack of tissues. Only when the stranger’s voice found its way into his ears did Yuri finally look up.

“My pleasure,” the man in front of him said, his stoic facial expression in stark contrast to the deep and velvety sound of his rich voice.

Yuri swallowed whatever lump had instantly formed in his throat but he was still unable to say anything. He was blindsided for a moment, his lips parted but no words passing them.

“Are you alright?” the stranger asked as Yuri kept staring at him silently, the faintest hint of a grin teasing around the corners of his mouth.

All Yuri managed to do was nod. He didn’t even have the mental capacity to internally curse himself for being such an idiot. The admittedly gorgeous stranger literally took Yuri’s breath away. He was stunned by him but he couldn’t do anything about it. His body decided to betray him as he apparently wasn’t able to find his voice again anytime soon.

“I’m glad,” the stranger then said as Yuri just stupidly kept nodding in response to his original question.

The guy seriously _winked_ at Yuri before he turned around on his heels and went out of Yuri’s sight. Yuri didn’t have a lot of time to stare at him or wonder where he was going because the kid who spilled his hot coffee all over Yuri was still all over him, not letting go and only getting more flustered the more time passed.

“Enough already,” Yuri snarled at him, pushing his hands away from his leg. “You’ve done enough damage already, haven’t you?”

He was about to head out of the coffee shop again, his desire to get his own morning coffee completely gone now that he had to worry about his clothes instead. Yuri had salvaged his jeans as much as he could and he refused to make the situation even worse by splashing water all over them as well. He threw the tissues he used to somewhat dry the coffee stain into the trash before he went to stalk out of the coffee shop, leaving the embarrassed kid behind without any further acknowledgement of him or what he had done. Just as Yuri was about to push open the front door one of the baristas came running over to him.

“Excuse me,” the girl almost shouted across the entire store in an attempt to get his attention.

Even though Yuri had no desire to speak to anyone else, he did turn around. He was surprised when he found the barista rushing to him to hand him a large to-go cup.

“I didn’t order this,” he said bluntly, not inclined to take the cup offered to him as it was no doubt not what he had wanted anyway.

“I know,” the girl said, practically pushing the cup into his chest so he had no other choice but to take it after all.

“Then who the fuck did?” he asked as he wrapped his slim fingers around the cup, lifting it up to smell what was no doubt the undisturbed scent of pure black coffee, which happened to be exactly what he had come to the shop for.

The girl only shrugged her shoulders. “I only make the orders, okay?,” she snapped before she walked away again, leaving Yuri there stood by himself with a cup of coffee he didn’t order and a pair of ruined jeans that were bound to make his day even worse than it already was.

###

Shortly afterwards, Yuri pulled into the college’s parking lot and couldn’t help but grimace. Since dance was considered neither a hundred percent art nor sport, his course was, strangely enough, assigned to the music faculty which happened to be situated right between the other two. He had a dislike for all things high school from pep rallies, science clubs and homecoming to sports, cheerleaders and quarterbacks. If his grandfather hadn’t forced him to get his high school diploma, Yuri would have never even started high school in the first place. All he wanted to do was dance. Algebra, evolution and German weren’t necessarily things he needed to know about to be able to move his body as gracefully as a ballerina. All in all, school was a useless and foreign concept to Yuri.

Funny thing was that he was actually a very smart kid. Studying came easily to Yuri. He had never had to put any real effort into his school work as it came as naturally to him as dancing did. Bad grades certainly wasn’t anything his grandfather ever had to scold him for.

Yuri parked his beaten-down car and got his worn backpack out from the passenger seat, throwing it over his right shoulder as he walked towards the main entrance of the school. It was so early that there were barely any other students there yet. On the other side of the car park Yuri spotted the dark blue and very elegant BMW that belonged to the school’s drama and dance teacher - Miss Baranovskaya.

There had been many, many reasons why Yuri had not wanted to come to Saint Petersburg but Miss Baranovskaya was the one and only reason Yuri had decided to leave his grandfather and Moscow behind after all. Studying under someone as talented, disciplined and successful as Miss Baranovskaya was every dancer’s dream and Yuri was one of the lucky ones who had been selected to do so. Only ten places were available each year and the competition was always fierce but Miss Baranovskaya must have seen _something_ in Yuri, otherwise she wouldn’t have selected him after a rigorous and long selection process that included three rounds of presenting individually choreographed pieces to her and her staff members.

Just the thought of finally starting to learn from Miss Baranovskaya herself made Yuri almost forget about the coffee shop incident - almost anyway. He just had to look down at his ruined jeans to remember his horrible morning. Yuri quickly decided that he definitely wasn’t going to meet his teacher looking like that, so he navigated his way through the wide halls of the building the music faculty was in to find the nearest bathroom.

Once inside a stall, Yuri quickly rid himself of his stained jeans. He rummaged through his bag for his practice clothes and got his simple black leggings out. This certainly hadn’t been his plan and he knew he would just draw unnecessary attention to himself walking around like that but he didn’t particularly care. He wasn’t ready to embarrass himself in front of Miss Baranovskaya on his very first day.

He stuffed his ruined jeans inside his backpack and scrambled out of the bathroom stall. Thankfully no one else was in the restroom to give him shit for his leggings right away. Yuri knew he shouldn’t feel embarrassed but this was the music building after all. He could only imagine what kind of douchebags were running around this place only waiting to give people like him a hard time for wanting to be a professional dancer.

The halls were crowded so Yuri kept his head down but he soon realised that everyone seemed to be so distracted with themselves that no one really noticed him anyway. It was easy to spot the nervous kids who had their very first day much like Yuri did. Then there were the second year students who were still dutifully carrying around their books, still too motivated and goal-oriented to fully give in to the typical college lifestyle, at least judging by what popular media wanted people to think about people’s times at university. The third year students were laughing uncontrollably, their relaxed faces giving away that the first day of a new school year wasn’t really new to them anymore. Last but not least, Yuri spotted some MA students. Those people, having already finished their undergraduate course and now moving on towards their postgraduate qualification, seemed so at ease that Yuri envied them a little. He wished he could steal little bit of their confidence, not that Yuri didn’t have any at all but the thought of being Lilia Baranovskaya’s student still made him anxious.

According to the map he had studied vigorously during the last few days, he could not have been far from the room where he would have his very first class. But just then the biggest reason why did _not_ want to come to Saint Petersburg and explicitly this university came leisurely walking around the corner and bumping into him.

“Yurio,” his cousin cheered the second he recognised him.

Yuri went to rearrange his backpack over his shoulder when he growled out a cold and unhappy, “Hello Victor.”

“It’s so good to finally see you,” Victor said cheerily, his light silver hair bouncing happily on his, according to Yuri, way too large forehead, “although I must admit I had hoped you would call me before your first day so we could catch up.”

He was sporting that annoyingly childish pout that Yuri hated with a passion. It made him look like an idiot.

“Yeah, well,” he mumbled, “I was busy.”

Only then did Yuri notice the man next to Victor and the fact that they were holding hands which Victor seemed to pick up on as well.

“Oh, right,” he said, the huge smile on his face not wavering, “this is my Yuuri.”

He pointed to the dark-haired man by his side. Yuuri was slightly shorter than Victor, his hair a mess on his head but his eyes warm and welcoming, albeit a little shy. It was hard to find something about him to instantly dislike but Yuri’s nature was so that he at least always tried. He would find something sooner or later that would drive him nuts. A guy that was together with Victor must have suffered from some major head injury at one point or another, no doubt.

Yuri nodded in acknowledgement and Yuuri only returned that with a tiny smile, not saying anything either. It was slightly awkward but Victor didn’t seem to notice.

“Well,” Yuri said, trying to get away as soon as he could, “I have to get to my first class.”

He was already on his heels ready to walk away when Victor shouted, “Good luck on your first day, Yurio. We’ll see you soon.”

Yuri could only cross his fingers and hope that that would not be the case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts and opinions, anyone? I know I have lots of other WIPs, most of them have new chapters already written actually, just not published yet, but this idea has been sitting in my YOI folder for ages now and I thought it's time for it to see the light of day... The second and third chapter are already written and they should be up within the next week or so.
> 
> Hope everyone's having a nice weekend so far! x


	2. The Big Introduction.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miss Baranovskaya has good and bad news for Yuri.

It only took Yuri another three minutes or so to finally get to the room where he was supposed to meet his classmates and Miss Baranovskaya. He wasn’t the first student to arrive. It actually appeared like he was the last. There were already nine other people in the room, sitting around but all keeping to themselves. No one was resting on a chair since Yuri couldn’t spot any to begin with. This was a dance studio after all, it seemed like, so everyone was sitting cross-legged on the floor, their bags carelessly dropped by their side. 

Yuri wasn’t one for smalltalk anyway but it still irritated him a bit that none of the other people were talking to each other. For reasons unknown to him, he made himself comfortable close to a red-headed girl he had never seen before. Frankly, he had never met any of the other students before, at least he couldn’t remember any of them from his casting performances. The red-headed girl briefly smiled at him and Yuri even returned it with a polite nod. 

It wasn’t long before a door to Yuri’s right, not the door out to the hall that he had come in through, opened up wide only to reveal Miss Baranovskaya, her hair tied into her signature bun at the back of her head and her long elegant figure almost gliding across the floor.

Everyone immediately scrambled to stand up but she put her hand up and everyone froze.

“Sit,” she said and everyone went back down to the floor, albeit sitting up straighter than before.

“As you all already know, I am Miss Baranovskaya,” she introduced herself which Yuri deemed a little pointless. Neither him nor any of the other students would be there if it weren’t for her. She had hand-selected them all herself, so the need to tell them who she was seemed redundant.

“You’re the privileged few this year who have earned their place in my course. The competition was fierce but somehow you all made it here,” she told them. “But don’t be fooled. Simply the fact that you made it here today does not guarantee your spot for the three years to come. Work hard and you will be rewarded. Don’t think you can scrape by on pure talent. You will have to put in the work or you will have to leave. I don’t tolerate laziness or sickness. Take care of yourself or risk losing everything you have worked for up until now.”

Well, one thing was for sure. Miss Baranovskaya certainly knew how to scare the crap out of all of them on their very first day. Judging by the look of horror on everyone else’s faces, Yuri wasn’t the only one intimidated by her words.

“Now,” she said, gently clasping her hands while her eyebrows stayed knitted together. “I won’t be teaching you on my own. Every year I have help from promising second year music students and our very own MA students. They were not selected purely based on their talent like you were, but also on what they have achieved so far and what they have to show for themselves.”

Just then a group of seven people, surprisingly all men, came slowly walking in through the door Miss Baranovskaya had entered the room through before. Much to Yuri’s dismay, that small group held two major surprises for him. 

First he saw the one person he had thought he would never see again. It was the stranger from the coffee shop who saved his phone from breaking into a thousand tiny pieces. The stranger himself didn’t seem too surprised when their eyes locked for a moment. The coy smile on his face gave Yuri the impression that he was pleased more than anything else.

Just behind the handsome stranger, Victor and Yuuri of all people walked into the room. Victor was waving happily at Yuri but thankfully not saying anything. Yuri couldn’t stop himself from banging his head against the palm of his hand anyway, only really noticing what he was doing when Miss Baranovskaya’s voice echoed through the room.

“Yuri Plisetsky,” she said and Yuri’s head instantly snapped up, “is there a problem?”

Yes, hell yes, there were multiple issues that made Yuri want to run but he had fought hard to get here, to earn his place in this course. He would not be so stupid to risk it all just because his idiotic cousin seemed to somehow be involved in  _ his _ course as well.

“No, Miss Baranovskaya,” Yuri answered politely, sitting up straight again. 

Victor and Yuuri stood to her right side with two other men, one tall and blond, the other one dark-skinned with black hair, the rest of the group stood left to her. 

Yuri was torn between wanting to run as far away as he possible could because he just didn’t want to deal with Victor, and wanting to stay because he was so intrigued by what the gorgeous stranger from his morning coffee run was doing there.

“Alright,” Miss Baranovskaya said, forcing everyone’s attention back on her.

It was hard not to blush to the tip of his ears when Yuri felt like the beautiful stranger from earlier was constantly staring at him. He almost didn’t listen to what Miss Baranovskaya had to say, only focusing on her words when he made out his own name.

“Mister Plisetsky,” she said again but this time in a more annoyed tone of voice. “Why don’t you start?”

Yuri imagined how everyone in the room noticed the giant question mark above his head as he had absolutely no clue what he was supposed to start with.

“Introduce yourself,” Miss Baranovskaya told him once she apparently ran out of patience. “Your name and age, where you’re from and what you’re here to study.”

She seemed exasperated and Yuri wanted to mentally slap himself for slagging off on his first day. However, he soon did as he was asked.

“My name is Yuri Plisetsky,” he said. “I’m eighteen, originally from Moscow and I’m here to study ballet.”

Normally he didn’t have issues with people putting attention on him but this somehow felt weird now, not just because the good-looking stranger was still smiling that coy smile at him. He wished he could erase that pink colour from his face that was no doubt still proudly colouring his cheeks.

Miss Baranovskaya pointed to the red-headed girl next to Yuri. “Hi,” the girl said, “I’m Mila Babicheva. I’m nineteen years old and I’ve lived in Saint Petersburg my whole life. I’m here to study ballet as well.”

After that Yuri basically stopped listening. He only remembered the important bits like names and what his classmates were there to study. Apparently the group was split evenly in half, five ballet dancers and five students for contemporary dance. It was him, Mila, a shy Chinese guy called Guang Hong, an Italian girl called Sara and another Russian called Filipp who were there to study ballet under Miss Baranovskaya’s guidance. The contemporary dancers were Karolina from Poland, Anna from England, Stefan from Germany, and Rosa and Pedro who were both from Spain. Yuri knew from all his years of admiring Miss Branovskaya that Guang Hong was this year’s exception in their group. It was a well-known fact that she only selected European students for her course, having said in many interviews that other continents have enough good dance schools of their own (even ones she approved of as well) and that she wanted to support and give fellow Europeans a chance first and foremost. Nevertheless, she always picked one student from further away, having taught people from all over the world at one point or another. This year she had picked Guang Hong for reasons Yuri was sure he would soon find out.

Once they had all introduced themselves to the group, Miss Baranovskaya directed her students’ attention to the men standing next to her. 

“This,” she pointed to her right side, “is Victor Nikiforov from Russia, second year MA student for choreography. Next to him we have Yuuri Katsuki from Japan, first year MA student to teach ballet, followed by Phichit Chulanont from Thailand, first year MA student to teach contemporary dance and last but not least there’s Christophe Giacometti from Switzerland, second year MA student for choreography.”

All the new students applauded for a moment while Victor, Yuuri, Phichit and Chris smiled politely into the room, grateful for the acknowledgement.

“All of them have completed the course you’re about to begin. They will help me teach you in many regards, so make sure you take note. Don’t think that just because they’re still students as well that they don’t know what they’re doing. All four of them are up to  _ my _ standards and you can be assured that they will be able to help you get where they already are.”

When Yuri thought about it, he was impressed and confused. It must have been such an honour to not only have graduated from Miss Baranovskaya’s course but also to now be able to teach the very same course they had done. But one thing still irritated Yuri. If both Yuuri and Phichit were first year MA students, one of them must be older than the other, otherwise Miss Baranovskaya must have broken her own rule with Yuuri being from Japan and Phichit being from Thailand. For the moment, Yuri decided not to rattle his brain any more with this. He was sure he would find out sooner or later considering that he was about to spend a lot more time with his cousin, whether he wanted to or not.

Once everyone had settled down again, Miss Baranovskaya went on. “To my left are Jean-Jacques Leroy from Canada and Leo de la Iglesia from the US, both specialising in piano and studying composition,” she said, pointing to a guy with an obnoxious smile and a dopey looking undercut, and a slightly shorter boy with longish brown hair who seemed at least quite nice. 

Yuri suddenly became anxious because the only person who had not been introduced yet was the sexy looking stranger from the coffee shop. 

“And this is Otabek Altin from Kazakhstan,” Miss Baranovskaya introduced him. “He is also studying composition but specialises in guitar.”

At least Yuri now had a name, Otabek. He an undercut just like the weird dude next to him but on him it looked so, so good. Yuri would do a lot of unspeakable things for a chance to run his hands through that shiny hair. 

He quickly shook his head once he realised what kind of improper thoughts were running through his mind. Trying his best to put his focus back on Miss Baranovskaya, Yuri couldn’t resist a small satisfied grin when he noticed the faint blush on Otabek’s face the moment their eyes locked once again.

“Mister Feltsman, the head of the music department, chooses three of his most promising second year students every year to complete their third semester assignment in cooperation with my course,” Miss Baranovskaya began to explain, instantly piquing Yuri’s interest. His full attention was on her when she continued. 

“Now,” she said, slowly clapping her hands together again and directing her words to her ten new students, “ _ your _ very first assignment here is simple. Every single one of you will choreograph an individual piece of dance together with two of our MA students to an original piece of music you will collaborate on with one of the second year music students.”

Yuri stomach lurched at that. Knowing his luck he would get the worst possible partners he could possibly imagine.

“All of the contemporary dance students will work with Mister Giacometti and Mister Chulanont, the ballet students with Mister Nikiforov and Mister Katsuki,” Miss Baranovskaya explained and Yuri immediately wanted to run - again. 

He sighed heavily, risking a glance over to his cousin who smiled as broadly as no other human being would ever be capable of. Yuri began to seriously doubt his decision to come to this university.

“Normally we have three piano students working on the music, but since this year Mister Feltsman has chosen Mister Altin, I have decided to split the groups more unevenly than necessary,” Miss Baranovskaya said. “Sara, Karolina, Stefan and Pedro are with Mister Leroy. Mila, Guang Hong, Anna and Rosa, you are with Mister de la Iglesia which leaves Yuri and Filipp with Mister Altin.”

Of course, Yuri thought. He had such bad luck with Victor and Yuuri that at least the universe seemed to want to redeem itself by assigning the one hot guy to him. If that really was a good thing, Yuri wasn’t quite sure of. He looked over at his fellow student Filipp and what he saw then, he didn’t particularly like either.

The way Filipp gawked at Otabek sent a chill down Yuri’s spine. Jealousy, professionally and romantically, had always been one of his rather negative character traits and it certainly wasn’t like Otabek was his or anything. Hell, they didn’t even know each other, but seeing this Filipp guy stare at Otabek the way he did made Yuri want to punch him.

“Yuri and Filipp, you’re the most advanced dancers here,” Miss Baranovskaya said, forcing Yuri’s attention back on her. “A piano piece may be more conventional for a ballet routine but I want you to make the most of your chance to work with Mister Altin. I want to see your creativity. See it as your first real challenge and don’t disappoint me.”

Yuri gulped at that. It almost sounded like a threat but in reality, probably ninety percent of what came out of Miss Baranovskaya’s mouth sounded like a threat.

“Your individual schedules are tailored to your partner’s schedule. We have our first training session this afternoon so everyone can get a chance to see where you all stand at this very moment,” Miss Baranovskaya told them as she passed around their schedules. “I advise you to exchange phone numbers with your partners before you leave.”

Following that she left the room without another word. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was still a bit of an introduction to the characters but things should pick up with the next one. ;)


	3. The Cautious Approach.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri is unexpectedly and reluctantly making friends.

The second the door closed behind Miss Baranovskaya, chatter broke out. As quiet as his classmates had been when he entered the room, the louder they were now. Yuri just wanted to hide. The thought of how his upcoming semester would go kind of made him want to run.

“Yurio,” Victor happily sang as him and Yuuri wandered over to him, now hand in hand.

Yuri forced himself not to roll his eyes which may have been the hardest thing he had to do that day but at the end of the day, Victor was still part of his family and he would have to tolerate him for at least one semester. 

“So what did you think of Miss Baranovskaya?” Victor asked but continued on before Yuri could get a word in edgewise. “She’s fantastic, isn’t she? We’re going to have a great semester, I promise. My Yuuri is fantastic. We’ll put a great piece together for you.”

It became harder and harder to stay civil for Yuri. He had relished the fact that he only saw Victor about twice a year but that would drastically change now.

Instead of picking up on anything Victor had said, Yuri asked, “Why the hell didn’t you tell me before that you were going to work with us?”

That stupid grin on Victor’s face was so incredibly annoying but Yuri refrained from punching his cousin. 

“Ahhh,” Victor said, beaming, “It was more fun this way, don’t you think?”

Shaking his head, Yuri fished his phone out of his pocket. Judging by the way Victor and Yuuri clung to each other, they were obviously an item. He knew that much without Victor having to point it out.

“I assume I will reach you through Victor any time of the day,” Yuri said, his words unexpectedly directed at Yuuri, “but we should probably still exchange numbers.”

He was surprised with himself, being so polite and not swearing for once, but this other Yuuri hadn’t done anything to him, yet, so he figured he could at least try to be nice for a change.

“Oh, aehm, yeah,” Yuuri stuttered as he got his phone out of his jacket, “sure.”

Yuri quickly typed his number into Yuuri’s phone and then rang himself, so he would have the other’s number as well. They had probably only stood there for a couple of minutes but to Yuri it seemed like a lifetime.

Victor did most of the talking then but Yuri barely listened. Soon enough the other ballet students began to surround them, eager to speak to Victor and Yuuri themselves. Yuri was thankful for the distraction as it gave him an opportunity to sneak away.

Once he was sure that his cousin and his boyfriend wouldn’t notice him leaving, Yuri dove for his bag and hoped to hurry out. Unfortunately there was one more surprise waiting for him by the door.

Otabek stood there, casually leaning back against the doorframe with his arms crossed in front of his chest. It highlighted his triceps even through the damn leather jacket he was wearing, and Yuri would do anything to take that jacket off of him and find out what he was hiding underneath.

What the fuck, Yuri thought, that was wishful thinking and he didn’t need that on his first day. He should probably try to make friends before he thought about fucking some admittedly handsome dude he just met. 

He tried to push past Otabek but a strong hand on his slim arm held onto him.

“Aren’t you forgetting something, Yuri?” Otabek asked him, his wonderfully deep voice giving Yuri goosebumps again.

“Well,” Yuri said, emphasising the vowel more than necessary because his mind suddenly went blank. 

He stopped and turned around. As soon as he did, Otabek unfortunately took his hand off of his arm. It felt like the skin, underneath the two layers of fabric, was burning up where Otabek had touched him.

“We should probably exchange phone numbers if we’re going to work together,” Otabek said, the smile on his face finding its way into his voice as well.

Yuri was blinded by so much handsomeness. It wasn’t fair, it really, really wasn’t fair to confront him with someone like Otabek at the start of his university career. What was the universe thinking here?

“Oh,” Yuri said, “yeah.”

Once again, he wanted to slap himself. Now he was stammering just like Yuuri was before and he had wanted to throw his fist into that face as well.

“Would you mind putting in your number?” Otabek asked, passing him his phone to type in his number which was exactly what Yuri did.

His face was burning up as he took the phone from Otabek, their fingers brushing briefly. Yuri avoided Otabek’s gaze on him at all cost after that. His imagination would go into overdrive if he kept looking at those teddy bear eyes one more time that day.

“Here,” Yuri said, giving Otabek his phone back after he had saved his number. 

He was extra careful that their hands wouldn’t touch again. 

“Thanks,” Otabek replied as Yuri was ready to leave. 

“No problem,” was all Yuri mumbled in response as he re-adjusted his bag and began to walk away.

He was almost around the corner on his way out when he heard Otabek shout, “I’ll text you about Wednesday.”

Stopping in his tracks, Yuri turned around again and damn, even with that distance between them he was mesmerised by those deep, brown eyes looking at him. 

“What?” Yuri asked, perplexed as to what Otabek was talking about.

“Our first session is on Wednesday,” Otabek said, pointing to the printed out schedule Yuri was still holding in his hand.

Glancing over said schedule quickly, Yuri noticed that they were actually supposed to meet up in two days to begin work on the music he was going to choreograph his assignment piece to.

“Right,” Yuri barely even whispered, still staring at the schedule, but Otabek had obviously heard him nevertheless.

“Think about a theme for your piece and we’ll take it from there,” Otabek said, and Yuri finally looked up to him again. “See you later, Yuri.”

The bastard had the audacity to wink at him, again, and Yuri was ready to melt on the spot. His knees were wobbly and his heart was racing. What was Otabek, a guy he had only met a few hours earlier, doing to him?

Otabek walked away from him into the other direction. As Yuri was looking after him, unable to take his eyes off of Otabek’s glorious backside, Otabek turned around briefly only to smile at Yuri in a way that would be his death someday, one way or another. 

###

In a desperate attempt to get Otabek out of his mind, Yuri found himself seeking some peace in one of the many cafes that the campus had to offer. He had some time to kill until his first proper lesson with Miss Baranovskaya so he had wandered off to the other side of the large campus.

The cafe really was small, only about a dozen cozy tables squeezed into the tiny space but it was basically what Yuri had been looking for. He had hid himself away at a table furthest from the entrance with the wall behind him so no one could sneak up on him.

With a hot and steaming cup of pure black coffee in front of him, Yuri had put his earphones in and gotten his favourite book out of his bag. He wasn’t much of a reader but he had read  _ Jack and the Beanstalk _ a million times already. It was the one book he would never get tired of, plus it helped him relax and drown everything around him out.

He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there on his own with his now empty cup when the red-headed girl from his course, he thought Mila was her name, and another young man came to a halt in front of him.

“Hi Yuri,” Mila, yes, that was definitely her name, greeted him cheerily. She wasn’t as bad as Victor by any means but if Yuri had to look at her beaming smile for much longer he was sure he would want to punch it right out of her too.

“Hello Yuri,” the shy man next to her said, his cheeks flushed a lovely shade of pink as he hugged his books closer to his chest.

“You remember us, right?” Mila then asked before she invited herself to sit down next to him. “I’m Mila and this is Guang Hong.”

Ah right, now Yuri remembered. Guang Hong was in his course as well. He nodded politely to acknowledge the other man as Guang Hong sat down opposite of him.  

“What are you doing here?” Yuri asked, removing his earphones from his ears and shutting his book to hide it away from them.

“We were just checking out the campus and saw you in here,” Mila explained, “so we thought we’d drop by.”

Yuri only nodded again, not particularly keen on getting involved in the conversation. Mila went on without him nevertheless, even without Guang Hong to tell the truth. She seemed perfectly fine carrying the entire conversation on her own. Yuri for his part just tried not to be rude and run away, partly because he would feel bad leaving Guang Hong alone with her.

A good five minutes into Mila’s monologue her phone rang a couple of times. She quickly fished it out of her jeans pocket and excused herself. She walked away so Yuri and Guang Hong couldn’t eavesdrop on her chat with whoever was on the other line.

Yuri just looked after her, at a loss for words as to what he could possibly say about that girl.

“She’s a handful, isn’t she?” Guang Hong snickered from the other side of the table.

Turning his head around, Yuri observed the man for a second. He was obviously amused rather than annoyed by Mila like Yuri was, for reasons he couldn’t even begin to understand.

“You don’t say,” Yuri eventually said, sneaking another glance back at Mila.

“I met her twice when we were auditioning for Miss Baranovskaya,” Guang Hong explained, “and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.”

That certainly answered a few questions Yuri had about their relationship. Mila and him seemed like two completely different people. He had wondered how these two had ended up hanging out together. 

Yuri focused his attention back on Guang Hong, who was now slowly sipping his iced coffee. Just then did Mila barge back into the cafe to pick up her bag which she had left right next to Yuri before she had hurried out the door.

“Sorry, guys but I gotta go,” Mila said, a sickeningly huge smile plastered on her face. 

She didn’t even wait for Yuri or Guang Hong to ask why she was leaving, not that Yuri would have asked anyway, before she almost ran back out to do whatever it was that was so important.

“I bet she’s meeting Sara,” Guang Hong said without looking up from his phone. 

That name sounded familiar to him but Yuri couldn’t quite place it. “Sara?” he asked.

“The Italian girl from the course,” Guang Hong said, a lovely little smile on his lips now as well. 

Yuri raked his brain for a mental picture of the girl Guang Hong was talking about but it came up blank. He shrugged his shoulders once, a hopefully apologetic expression on his face. He had no idea why he tried to be nice to this guy. Normally he wasn’t invested in gossip and he couldn’t say that he was interested in what Mila was doing or who she was doing it with, but there was something about Guang Hong that made Yuri want to be nice to him. It irked him a lot but he wouldn’t tell Guang Hong as much.

“I’ll point her out to you this afternoon during our lesson,” Guang Hong promised before he went back to scrolling through his phone.

This guy certainly was a little odd but Yuri didn’t mind. There was something trustworthy about Guang Hong that put Yuri at ease. Sure, they didn’t really know each other yet and his trust could be massively displaced but he wouldn’t know if he didn’t give him a shot.

They each kept busy with their own things for a while, the silence between them comfortable instead of awkward which was also new to Yuri. He stole occasional glances at the other boy but didn’t know what to say or how to get another conversation going.

But then it struck him, what Guang Hong had said when he had introduced himself to the class earlier.

“You’re from China, right?” Yuri asked out of the blue, the sudden disruption to their silence a surprise to Guang Hong.

“Yeah,” he said, “I am.”

Yuri pondered over that. It seemed difficult to get Guang Hong to talk now, although maybe his initial question just didn’t give him much to work with.

“Did you know that Miss Baranovskaya only chooses European students except for one every year?” Yuri couldn’t stop himself from asking. He really wanted to know what Miss Baranovskaya saw in Guang Hong that she picked him as her exception this year.

“I do,” Guang Hong said calmly, taking another sip from his coffee, “and before you ask, no, I don’t know why she picked me.”

Yuri huffed at that, positive that Guang Hong knew exactly why. Miss Baranovskaya must have said  _ something _ to him when she chose him. 

“I really don’t know, Yuri,” Guang Hong said again, laughing this time. “I honestly thought I had no chance but my parents convinced me to audition and well, here I am.”

He shrugged his shoulders to emphasize his lacking knowledge.

“You must have at least an idea of why she picked you,” Yuri rambled on, not satisfied with Guang Hong’s explanation. He just couldn’t believe that he got accepted into one of the most prestigious and acclaimed dance courses in the world and not know how he got there.

“I don’t,” Guang Hong said again, a bubbly laugh escaping his throat.

He obviously thought this was funny but Yuri was frowning. He was too interested in finding out what Miss Baranovskaya thought about her students to just let it go.

Yuri was about to dig even deeper but then his phone rang, disrupting his train of thought. He got it out of his bag only to discover that Miss Baranovskaya herself was calling him.

Nausea immediately spread through Yuri’s stomach. Guang Hong noticed that and shot him a questioning glance but Yuri ignored him and forced himself to pick up the call.

“Yes?” he answered, already wanting to slap himself. He could have at least said his name.

“Yuri,” Miss Baranovskaya’s booming voice came rushing through the phone line, “come meet me at my office.”

Yuri swallowed hard. “Now?” he asked.

“Yes, now,” was the only reply he got from Miss Baranovskaya before she just hung up.

He stared at his phone a little intimidated as if his phone had just been incredibly cold to him instead of his dance teacher. 

“Are you okay, Yuri?” Guang Hong asked concerned, putting his own phone down.

“Yeah,” Yuri breathed out, shaking his head to collect his thoughts. “That was Miss Baranovskaya. She wants to see me in her office.”

Guang Hong’s eyes went wide for just a second before smiled. “I’m sure you’ve got nothing to worry about. The semester has only just started and we haven’t even had our first lesson yet.”

Yuri picked up his stuff and buried everything deep inside his bag. “I hope you’re right,” he said when he stood up to leave. “See you later.”

Guang Hong waved after him, saying, “See you later, Yuri.”

There was no point in denying that Yuri felt like he was about to throw up. What could he have possibly done for Miss Baranovskaya to want to speak to him alone in her office? Had he somehow managed to mess this all up before their lessons had even began? Did she change her mind about him and just wanted to kick him out?

Yuri was at a loss but he forced himself to walk a little faster to get back to the other side of the campus. If she really did want to throw him out, he wanted this to be over with as soon as possible.  


End file.
